


Dinosaurs and Other Beliefs

by methylviolet10b



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World - All Media Types
Genre: Belief, Crossover, Fame, Fossils, Implied Relationships, Introspection, Prompt Fill, Retirement, Science, faith - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-10 15:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15294825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/methylviolet10b/pseuds/methylviolet10b
Summary: Famous neighbors do not always see eye to eye. Written for JWP #14 over on Watson's Woes.





	Dinosaurs and Other Beliefs

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Rather introspective and broody, and not much plot. References to other writings by ACD. And absolutely no beta. This was written in a huge rush. You have been warned.  
> Author's Notes: Written for the following prompt: Dinosaurs. Involve at least one somewhere – anything froma Victorian museum exhibit to an actual velociraptor. Bonus point if you somehow bring in Professor George Challenger!

Famous neighbours breed familiarity.   
  
I had encountered Professor George Challenger in London, long before his rise to fame and fortune. Early in his career, he consulted me on the matter of some stolen dinosaur bones and other geological specimens. I was able to trace the culprit easily enough, and recovered the fossils for him. While the case was ordinary enough, Professor Challenger was far from it. He made quite an impression on me, and on Watson, who described him in the unpublished case notes as ‘a giant bear of a man with a brilliant mind and a thorough disregard of manners.’  
  
Evidently the strong impression was mutual, for when Professor Challenger bought his Sussex estate after his triumphant return from South America, he paid me a call at my humble cottage, and included me ever afterwards in invitations to social and scientific events whenever he was in the countryside. I did my best to avoid the former, but occasionally availed myself of the latter. His always-hungry scientific mind, and his abhorrence of the lack of rational thought rigour in experiments and scientific papers, were similar enough to my own ways of thinking to make him a not-entirely-unwelcome acquaintance. After the War, even the social invitations had their occasional uses, when Watson was able to partake in such activity. His wife, a charming woman and a talented hostess, made us both feel welcome every time we ventured to his estate.  
  
His proximity was not always a benefit. For example, his geological mining experiment in ’21, when he nearly blew up the entire county, was an extreme nuisance, both in the effect, and in the aftermath, when pressmen descended on Sussex in droves. Some of the more enterprising dared make their way to my cottage door, wanting ‘the famous retired consulting detective’s perspective’ on both the events and on the Professor himself. I declined to comply, but if I had, I might have pointed out that scientific brilliance does not always go hand in hand with sound judgement.  
  
Invitations of any kind dwindled sharply after the regrettable death of his wife. Those I have received in recent days suggest that the profound loss has withered that once-mighty scientific brain. Grief seems to have drawn him into a belief in spiritualism, parapsychology, and other charlatanisms. It is a tragedy, one that is both incomprehensible to my rational self, and easy for me to understand. I remain a man of science, regardless of circumstances, or whatever I might personally hope to discover when I at last go to my rest.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted July 14, 2018


End file.
